Death of a Hero
by Bum Russian Elvis
Summary: Now Rewritten! Much better, I think, and much different! Luke Skywalker is captured by pirates, and his family mounts a rescue attempt!


Yes, here it is. Finally. The remake of Death of a Hero. Hopefully the good remake. I'm gonna just completely wipe the slate clean. I didn't like the old one. All new. All. All. All. ALL! I'm not keeping anything but basic plot elements. Okay? Alright! Let's go!  
  
Death of A Hero - Remake  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The pirate gang Luke Skywalker infiltrated was suspicious of him, to say the least. To say the most, they knew who he was and were acting accordingly.  
  
And we're saying the most.  
  
They had Luke in a specialized Jedi-prison. Ysalamiri, extremely heavy guard... There was never less then 10 people guarding Luke at any one time.  
  
And he had no chance at escape. The had taken his lightsaber and smashed it. Smashed it repeatedly, from what Luke heard, with a large, blunt object. There was no chance at fixing it, and even if he could get the materials to make a new one, they would notice him building something, and doubtlessly act accordingly.  
  
Not that it mattered. Luke had been beaten beyond hope at escaping. He barely had the strength to stand up. And they came endlessly. At the beginning of the torturing, they had given him about 4-5 torture sessions a day. By that rough estimate, he'd been in their captivity for more then a month. And he'd been tortured... so much. All of his bones had been broken and poorly healed. When had first been captured, they had put a blaster shot point-blank into his shoulder. He thought he had died, and wasn't sure that he hadn't. Maybe this was Hell, because of his brief stint as Vader-For-A-Day.   
  
Sometimes he got around to wondering why nobody had come to rescue him. And they hadn't, as far as he knew, so that was the clincher that he was dead, and the oh-so-evil ringleader was actually the devil. In that bleak scenario, Luke had no chance at escape. After all, how do you escape Hell? You don't, and he didn't.  
  
He was rescued.  
  
*****  
  
Anakin Solo swooped down on the prison facilty, aiming at the middle of the.. emptiness he felt through the Force. Hopefully, that's where the ysalamiri were, not his uncle.  
  
Jaina and Jacen were busy destroying the defenses, and Han and Leia were blasting the main headquarters to scrap in the Falcon. Aunt Mara in the Shadow was with some New Republic Military Force ships above, blasting ships in orbit up there. So Anakin was alone, doing the boring, completely undangerous, completely pointless job of finding the ysalamiri and blasting them. They didn't need the Force to rescue their uncle. At least, that's what he thought.  
  
Han had argued that it would be much easier to find their uncle with the Force, and he relunctantly agreed.   
  
But this - it was so boring! There were no missile turrets to dodge, no turbolasers to blast, no anything.   
  
Ah, well. May as well get it over with. Anakin triggered another blast into the prison, accidently swooping down into the Force-blind zone. He gasped at the sudden lack, fumbled with the controls, and didn't pull out of the dive. He was about to crash into the prison complex- but then the Force rushed back to him. He had blasted the ysalamiri with his last blast. With his refound strength, he pulled up. In the same moment, he clicked his comm.  
  
"Mom, Dad, Jacen, Jaina! I got the ysalamiri and I'm going in to get Uncle Luke now!"   
  
"Wait, Anak-" He clicked the comm off before his mom could say no. He landed the X-wing - Uncle Luke's X-wing - and put it into stand-by. "Artoo, if you see anyone that isn't me, Uncle Luke, my brother, sister, or parents, take off. Got that?"  
  
Chirps returned to him.  
  
"Yes, Artoo, I'm sure I can do this. I have the Force, and I can feel Uncle Luke - but barely. Sithspawn, Artoo, he's flickering. Dying. Now lock it down and do what I said."  
  
Reluctant chirps.  
  
"Thanks." Anakin hopped out the X-wing, and hooked his lightsaber off his belt. He held it deactivated as he called a blaster pistol to his hand. He held that in a ready position as he slowly moved towards the compound. He knew it wouldn't be long before the pirates came out to deal with him, so he would have gone faster. But the Force told him that this way was better, so he listened.  
  
Stealthily, he moved to a spot of shadows just as a large... large... large group of pirates burst out, surrounding the X-wing. He heard Artoo squeal as they moved to put a restraining bolt on him, and smiled slightly as the pirates cursed and the X-wing lifted off on it's repulsorlifts. The smile died when a missile-toting pirate aimed at the fighter.   
  
The missile streaked at the fighter floating 20 meters above, and prompltly exploded 10 meters above the pirates. The force rebounded off the shield and scattered the pirates, and Anakin made his move.  
  
The blaster pistol sang and the purple lightsaber wove around in tight circles, picking off the shots already springing at him. One, two, three pirates went down in as many shots. This unexpected, unprecedented, insane attack succeeded in not only making the odds more favorable for Anakin but scattering the pirates more. Two more blasts escaped from his blaster and another pirate went down.  
  
And then by some unseen, unheard signal, all the pirates opened up on Anakin.  
  
So let's do the math: A large large large group of pirates diminished by five equals 15 pirates, each with a heavy repeating blaster rifle. 15 heavy repeating blaster rifles multiplied by 10 blasts a second equals 150 laser blasts a second aimed at Anakin Solo, who has just dropped his blaster, shouted "SITHSPIT" rather rudely, and started deflecting the blasts.  
  
And these pirates had very good aim.  
  
*****  
  
Jaina Solo sighed at her younger brother. He was a good pilot, and probably the best of the new generation of Jedi. But he could be so... well... eager is probably the best word she (and therefore the author) could think of. Now he was off to save his Uncle, the best Jedi in the order, from the group of pirates who captured him. Real genious, kid.  
  
There was nothing she could do about it, she realized while jinking and juking her X-wing to avoid laser-fire. She triggered a dual-fire burst into a turbolaser, and it exploded satisfactorily. A squeal from her R2 unit, Cappie, alerted her to a tail she had just gained. A glance at her instruments alerted her to the fact that it was a TIE-wing - commonly referred to as DIE-wing. An ugly.  
  
And it certainly lived up to it's names. At least, it's nicknames.  
  
She looped the fighter up, and stopped when the ugly tried to copy the manuever. It didn't stop in time, and she smacked the brakes, letting the fighter pass hers. The first name it lived up to it did so well Jaina wasn't sure she wanted to look at it long enough to scrap it. It was ugly. Probably the ugliest ship in the galaxy.  
  
And the second name it lived up to... well, that kind've countered the other one. Four lasers blasts turned the ugly from a barely functional custom fighter to a bunch of small pieces that, if examined individually, would be ugly small pieces.   
  
Turbolaser fire rocked her shields, and therefore her ship, reminding her that there, in fact, still was a battle raging around her. Well, barely. She swooped down and put a missile launcher permenately out of commission. She weaved the ship around a turbolaser before sending that to join it's missile launching counterpart.   
  
A sudden shock through the Force blinded her and deafened her suddenly. She suddenly had an unshakable feeling of doom, and she - Anakin's in trouble!!!  
  
That realization brought her out of it long enough to see that a missile had found her. She tried to start jinking, but it was too late. The missile plowed into the ship and the back end blasted off.   
  
The darkness took her, and she never knew wether her brother had lived...  
  
*****  
  
Anakin gasped at the sudden pain and fear from his sister, but he forced himself to shut it out as more and more laser blasts poured in at him. While there were only 10 pirates left, that was still 10 blasters, and still 10 blasts per second per blaster, which meant 100 blasts per second.  
  
Oh. 9 pirates left.   
  
8.  
  
7.  
  
6 - who was doing that? Anakin wasn't deflecting that many back at them, he couldn't concentrate.  
  
That's five!  
  
He couldn't risk looking over his shoulder to see what was up, but he knew something's there...  
  
Another one bites the dust!  
  
Anakin frowned as another pirate crumpled, leaving 3 pirates left. They knew they were outclassed, but they kept shooting.  
  
2 pirates. Sorry.  
  
1.  
  
None.  
  
Anakin took the moment to scoop down and pick up - dirt. He glanced at his hand, not understanding why he didn't have the blaster he had dropped instead of dirt. That's when it occurred to him to look behind, because the person there probably had the blaster -   
  
He turned, and blinked. And gaped.   
  
Luke Skywalker stood there.   
  
At least, a person who looked like Luke Skywalker. Vaguely.  
  
A scruffy beard combined with a thin, haggard look to make Anakin doubt who it was for a little. The man let a weary sigh escape him and leaned against the blaster-burned wall.  
  
Oh, and the gaping hole in the man's stomach probably had something to do with the doubt at his identity.  
  
Nevertheless, Anakin was a Jedi, the man was dying, and he had saved Anakin's life. Anakin could at the very least attempt to return the favor. "Lay down. You're hurt - I'll get help."  
  
"N-no..." The man who looked like Luke also sounded like Luke. But Anakin refused to believe that his uncle was dying. Because it wasn't possible. "T-tend to y-your own wounds... I'm done for."  
  
"No... Uncle Luke!" Anakin sobbed. "I won't let you leave! I won't let you!"  
  
A weak smile broke at Luke's mouth. "S-strong am I in the Force... but n-not that strong..." He quoted.  
  
"Please, Uncle Luke! Just let me... help... somehow!"  
  
"Anakin... your wounds... you have to heal them..."  
  
With those words, Anakin realized that he was hurt, in multiple places - bruises, burns, and his shoulder had a nasty hole in it. And with that realization, the pain that had been lurking about saw it's chance with Anakin and swooped in.  
  
Like that would stop him. His Uncle was dying, his sister might be dead, and he was looking at a few days in a bacta tank. He wasn't going to just give up and lie down, though.  
  
He was Anakin Solo. He was not about to give up. 


End file.
